Hair in the age of excess

One of the greatest hair metal songs of all time is nearly done in by one of the worst videos of all time.

David Coverdale, the leader and lead singer of Whitesnake, co-wrote almost the entire album with the lead guitarist, John Sykes, who would in turn lead the band, Blue Murder. Notice that John Sykes, nor any other member of the band is given any facial closeups during the course of the video.

In fact, other than Coverdale, the only person prominently featured is his wife (from 89 to 91, at least) Tawny Kitaen.

The full moon background, the black silhouette of Coverdale leaning back, the pointless parading of Kitaen, all make for a ridiculous video that serves as a statement of all that is hair. Even the short sequence showing the guitarist using a bow is silly. That is not real folks. I wonder how many kids went to the guitar shop looking for cello bows after seeing this.

But none of this absurdity should take away one bit from the power of this incredible Led Zeppelin-inspired tune. Close your eyes if you have to, but there is hardly a better example of 80s pop metal than Still of the Night, from the non-debut, yet eponymous album by Whitesnake. In Europe it was called 1987, named after the year of its release. (And yes, I own it.)

Enjoy. It runs over six minutes. And let me know how much you liked Here I Go Again so much better in the comments.

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One of many hair metal elegies

Hair and pop metal followed a formula: heavy rhythm, flashy fretwork, high octave vocals, tight pants and big hair. The tune should be catchy, the chorus anthemic (the better to light your lighter and sing along with,) and the guitar solo should be flashy and macho.

After a few years of mining this formula, someone decided to do a song from the heart. Slow it down, play a little acoustic even, and create a ballad. These songs proved to be tremendously popular.

Then there were the hybrid songs. We've done one in this blog already, The Ballad of Jayne by LA Guns. These songs are slower tempo and the lyrics are usually about death or lost love rather than partying or general misbehavior.

Here's another example of the same genre, which coincided with the early 90s "angel" craze. The song is Fly to the Angels, performed by Slaughter (the lead singer's surname) from the album Stick It to Ya (1990) [Yes, I own it, though I haven't been able to track it down lately. Perhaps I lent it out?]

Mark Slaughter has an excellent hair metal voice, able to sing at high range to simulate (stimulate?) emotion. I don't know about you, but I get caught up in the sound and just start singing along. When he sings "...and I drive...down...this lonely lonely road..." it builds up solid tension that is successfully released by the subsequent chorus.

And with heart-tugging lyrics like "heaven awaits your heart and flowers bloom in your name" combined with hard rock sensibilities you have a song that appeals to the masculine and the feminine side, just like Ghost did at the movies. Genius.

My kids love to sing this song, especially the boy

He was singing it 15 years after it was released, but the meaning of this song spans generations.

This is from Extreme's eponymous debut in 1989 (yep, I own it.) The title of the song is Mutha (Don't Wanna Go to School Today) and it's featured prominently in the oft-repeated chorus.

The video lacks the pyrotechnic guitar solo by Nuno Bettancourt that opens the song on the album. That's too bad, because it would have been fun to see, but it really doesn't match the poppy sound of the song, so no harm.

The video is a bit silly, but they all are to some extent, especially from the days when hair ruled MTV. You'll notice that this video is supposed to be at a live show. It isn't. The track is straight from the album. Gary Cherone, the singer, misses numerous cues, there aren't any crowd noises, and the singalong chorus toward the end sounds like Miss Othmar's 3rd grade class and not a building full of young adults. Despite all of this, the song is fun (if a little clunky on the verses) because we all want to sing along with that catchy chorus.

"Mutha, don't want to go to work today, think I'd rather avoid the hectic fray..."